Wreaked havoc or wrought havoc?

You'll see both 'wreaked havoc' and 'wrought havoc' in many newspaper articles today, discussing the unrest in some cities. Which is correct? Strictly speaking, both are. 'Wrought' is often erroneously thought to be the past tense of 'wreak', but it isn't; it is an archaic past tense form of the verb 'to work' (as in 'wrought iron', for instance). The reason why both 'wreaked havoc' and 'wrought havoc' are ok is because the expression 'to work havoc' used to be common, so, of course, its past tense was 'wrought havoc'. Now, however, those newspapers and websites which use 'wrought havoc' (such as this BBC page) never use 'work havoc' in the present tense.

Comments

[John]

Interesting, sadly. Thanks for posting.

Our hearts go out to those who've suffered injuries and losses. May they and a beautiful country recover quickly.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks, John.

[English language]

I have trouble with the words effect and affect, no matter how many times somebody tries to explain it, I just can't wrap my head around it.... and I type it on a daily basis and am a trained medical secretary.

[Mia]

There are loads of different words that I get stuck on. I never know which of these is right and when to use in the correct context - course, cause or coarse it is really confusing to me.